First it was Apollo Global Management’s Marc Rowan who slammed Penn State, and then it was Apollo Global Management’s Dick Wolf. law and order This was followed by former US diplomat and businessman Jon Huntsman and billionaire Ronald Lauder.
Now it’s David Magerman who helped build Renaissance Technologies’ trading system. He harshly criticized Payne’s “misleading moral compass” in a letter to the president Elizabeth Magill Board President Scott Bok pointed to the school’s literary festival of Palestinian writing last month, as well as the school’s response to October’s Hamas attack on Israel.
“People who care about morals and ethics should leave institutions that show they don’t care,” Magerman said in a phone interview Tuesday. He added that he was “deeply ashamed” of his association with the university and planned to cease all donations.
Unrest at America’s elite universities is snowballing as universities try to balance free speech with condemnation of Hamas, which the United States and the European Union considers a terrorist organization. Penn is not the only university to be at the center of a donor backlash and broader unrest that has also affected schools from Harvard to Stanford.
The president and chairman of the board of trustees of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, condemned the comments of Professor Russell Rickford, who called the Hamas terror attack “inspirational” at an off-campus rally over the weekend.
“This was a reprehensible comment that showed no respect for humanity,” President Martha Pollack and Chairman Craig Kaiser said in a statement.
As the conflict in the Middle East worsens, tensions on campus continue.Hundreds of people were killed Israel and Hamas blamed each other following an explosion at a hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday.
At Harvard University, after Hamas launched its first attack earlier this month, more than 30 student groups issued statements blaming Israel solely for the violence. Former university president Larry Summers said he was “disgusted” by the university’s initial silence on the remarks. He later tempered his criticism when Harvard University President Claudine Gay issued three statements denouncing “the barbaric atrocities committed by Hamas.” But major donors Edan Ofer and Leslie Wexner severed ties with the Harvard Kennedy School.
Rowan Payne
Nowhere was the opposition stronger than at Penn. Rowan of Apollo led the charge in calling for Magill and Bock to step down. The two leaders responded by holding meetings and trying to drum up support. Bock, chairman and CEO of investment bank Greenhill & Co., said in a statement Monday that more than 50 current and retired trustees supported Penn State leaders after holding two virtual conversations.
Magill reiterated on Tuesday that she was taking actions to show that she and Payne “firmly oppose the terrorist attacks and anti-Semitism of Israel’s Hamas,” she said in a statement.
“I said we should communicate more quickly and more broadly about our position, but there’s no question that our convictions are strong,” she said.
While Bock and Magill defended Penn’s hosting of the Palestinian Writing Festival as a matter of free speech, Rowan accused Penn of requiring board members to relinquish their positions at the university because they freely expressed their disapproval of the same event worries.
Magerman’s letter
In a letter to Penn, Magerman lashed out at Magill and Bock, saying they “were vehement in their support of a Hamas-affiliated spokesperson at a Palestinian writing festival, and subsequently in response to what you allowed to be a Hamas The speakers made ambiguous statements about the heinous barbaric acts committed.” ”
He referred to Rowan’s demands that they be sacked, but said the outcome was “totally insufficient”.
“You showed me who you are,” he said, contrasting with the reactions of President Joe Biden, University of Florida President Ben Sasse and New York Mayor Eric Adams.
Magerman spent two decades at Renaissance Technologies, designing mathematical and statistical algorithms. He was forced to leave the secretive company after clashes with CEO Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah Mercer, who are former presidents Donald Trump and Important financial supporter of right-wing causes.
Lauder’s concerns
Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, echoed concerns about Payne this week and said he was reassessing his support.
“I have spent the past 40 years of my life fighting anti-Semitism around the world, but never in my wildest imagination did I imagine that I would have to fight against anti-Semitism at my university, my alma mater and My family’s alma mater fights anti-Semitism.” Letter to Magill. “Without satisfactory measures to address anti-Semitism at the university, you are forcing me to re-examine my financial support.”
Penn Wharton alumnus Jonathon Jacobson donated $1 to the university—a move Rowan suggested to the donor as a form of protest. Jacobson and his wife have been major donors over the years, establishing academic scholarships and spearheading efforts to help rebuild the basketball program.
Jacobson, founder of the investment firm HighSage Ventures, said in a letter to the University of Pennsylvania: “The university that shaped me is almost beyond recognition and the values it represents are not American values.” “There have been a number of problems over the past few years where the government has not shown leadership, moral courage or the ability to distinguish between what is clearly right and what is clearly wrong.”
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